The Christmas of the year 2006 both did and didn't go to plan. It both worked out perfectly and horribly backfired. It was a disaster and led to 12 more horrible Christmas's in its wake, and yet it also never happened in the first place. Because of the plight of a particular winter spirit. Who's desperate and terrible actions and outbursts thousands of years in the making, had finally come to a head.
Anyone who was there that day will tell you of the very public revelation that took place in the North Pole workshop, mere hours before Christmas was to begin. At first it was something relatively expected for his rather large list of previous misdemeanors that had come to light.
Lucy had come forward to explain that Jack Frost had frozen her parents solid and locked her in a closet with their comatose statues for hours on end.
And just then enters the man of the hour in the hands of the local police. Hopefully to collect his dues on such a crime to humankind. The whole workshop stopped in its tracks to witness the scene, along with the rest of the Legendary Council.
"Jack, this isn't funny. Unfreeze the parents, right now," Scott demanded.
"No way Claus. Take this as a little learning opportunity, that Mr. Golden Child can't fix everything."
Scott then turned away from Jack in search of anything that'll put an end to this whole debacle.
"Mother Nature. Help me out, can you thaw them out?"
"I'm afraid not Santa. Our powers don't work on other legendary figures" she said grimly.
Jack chuckled to himself, "Isn't that a shame."
At the moment Jack felt very confident that the only issue anyone else in the room knows about is the parental freeze, and that he might actually still get away with this. Hell, even Scott himself hasn't bothered to say anything on the matter yet, he might just get to live another day after all!
"Jack."
Dread sinks in as he hears Father Time's voice behind him. One loose end unaccounted for. Of course, he's the only other person who would know.
"As horrible as freezing these people are, that's not the only thing you've done today, is it?" His voice rang lower than normal.
Jack tensed as he realized what Father Time wanted him to do. He wanted him to say it, he wanted a confession. In front of all these people? The audacity!
"I don't know what you mean. If you want me to admit to freezing the parents here, I did do that! But i didn't do anything el-"
"You manipulated the Escape Clause Jack. You hijacked the timeline," Father Time interjected.
"It's true! He tricked me into activating the clause and took the position right out from under me," Scott admitted.
Damn it.
A collective gasp and waves of whispers from the crowd watching them, cemented a sense of panic in his nerves. This was unlike all the other cases where the consequences had caught up to him. He could handle the ire of a handful of legendary figures, but he can't sweet talk an entire crowd of onlookers. Usually, he enjoyed being at the center of attention, but now was a less than ideal time. He was backed into a corner, the truth fully out in the sun and he had nowhere to go.
Mother Nature then stepped forward and drained the room of quiet whispers.
"Jack", she faced him, her voice low and controlled, "Is this true?"
He frantically scanned the crowd for any out he could spot, before turning back to the looming 7ft figure. He looked back at her searching for any pity in her sullen expression but found none. There was no out, and Mother Nature was all out of Mother to enact.
He knows that now is not the time or place to try and appeal his stance. At the very least that can be saved for later behind closed doors.
"Yes. It is true. I did use the escape clause, and as the jolly man and pile of dust can vouch, in a completely separate timeline I was Santa Claus for 12 years. And I did a pretty bang-up job of it too!"
The mob of onlookers collectively gasped again as louder conversations of what ifs, and can you believe this? erupted yet again.
"Uncle Scott do something!" Lucy begged as she tugged on the red coat. She watched impatiently at the legendary staring contest taking place in front of her parents' frozen facades.
And Scott was going to try to talk to Jack again, before he was stopped by Father Time's staff in front of him. The Master of Time gave him a look of reassurance before tilting his head to gesture to Mother Nature.
With the line crossed and the chances officially run dry, she knew what she had to do. To at least put a temporary stop to all this madness once and for all. She didn't want to do it, she didn't know if she had the mental resolve to pull it off, but she pushed forward. She was the one that had to end all this, she needed to put a stop to what she had created.
Taking a few steps back, she swallowed the bundle of nerves that gathered in her throat as her hands started to glow with green light. Her eyes closed as she summoned forth a large and old book in a flurry of sparkles. The book's weathered pages quickly flipped through themselves, as she opened her eyes to reveal luminous all white sclera's.
Jack looked at her curiously, trying to get a read on just what her plan is. Watched methodically as the earth symbol on her forehead changed in a flash to a crescent moon. And it wasn't until a wave of silver magic etched the same crescent symbol into the ground around did, he realize what she was doing.
"No, no no no no no, you - you can't do this to me Mother Nature!"
"You have left me no choice!" she stretched her open palm out past the book in Jack's direction "I now enact The Moon Mandate."
In a frenzy, he tried to reach out to her to stop the spell but was stung by the hidden borders of the floor symbol.
Holding the afflicted hand, he could do nothing but watch as the glowing moon on the floor quickly shrank in size around him. Until the silver glow of the magic attached itself to him, traveling from his feet to his head. To Jack it felt like pins and needles racking his body in a flash.
By Mother Nature's wordless command, the silver glow on Jack moved and concentrated around his wrists. In a bright light, a pair of simple and deceivingly frail looking cuffs bound his hands together and weighted his arms down towards the floor.
Jack looked at the cuffs in disbelief. His skin turned a familiar shade of blue as he tried to summon some kind of magic to test if this was really what she did. The audience held their breath and braced for some kind of grand exit, but none came. Jack frantically looked around but the only thing that was happening was his breath was now visible and his skin was a different color.
Mother Nature gave Jack another stern look before approaching the frozen pair of humans.
She held out her green glowing hands facing them, as rays of sunlight came forth and melted the layers of ice from the two of them. They both emerged from their snowy tombs, shivering and a little damp, but otherwise safe and sound.
The crowd cheered at the release of the innocent couple as Lucy, Charlie along with Scott and Carol all rushed over to them to hug them and check on them after their safe thaw. Glad to have each other all together again. Soon the entire workshop got in on the action in a giant group hug by all.
Everything was fixed.
Wordlessly Mother Nature and Father Time, with Jack in tow, try to quietly leave the newly endowed celebratory atmosphere. They didn't want the inevitable blow out to damper such a joyous mood.
Jack was uncharacteristically speechless as he was led by the two monarchs toward the door. Because he knew that he was utterly powerless, defeated and humiliated. Mother Nature has never felt the need to utilize the Moon Mandate on anyone.
And now that it's activated and he's the one on the receiving end, he knew just how seriously this was. He's starting to doubt being able to talk his way out of this one after all.
As the three of them made their way towards the exit, Lucy caught sight of them out of the corner of her eye. And she knew there was something she had to do before they left.
"Wait!", she shouted as she managed to wriggle free of the massive group hug.
All three turned toward the child when she ran up to Jack and almost tackled him into a hug.
Far away enough from prying eyes, Mother Nature and Father Time watched in awe as this small child hugged the wanted criminal. The one who has just froze her parents, locked her away and stole her uncle's job as Santa Claus through deceit and manipulation.
But it seemed that all of that did not dissuade her.
Jack's heart rate shot up as he stared daggers at Lucy in disgust, considering he couldn't do anything else to make her let go at the moment. For some reason her hold on him was very strong for such a small girl, and uncomfortably warm.
"I forgive you" she said as she released him from her grasp.
Jack's expression softened ever so slightly, and Mother Nature and Father Time's eyes widened even more. She politely took a few steps back and quickly ran back to the workshop floor, leaving three Legendary Figures dumbfounded.
The two monarchs took a moment to process the little girl's small and incredibly kind gesture, before turning back toward the back door. Leading Jack with them on their original path.
Jack lingered a bit longer in the direction of where the little girl ran off to.
Forgiveness. Unbelievable.
And just like that. Everything was back to normal.
A/N: Welcome to the madness folks! This prologue is just to set up the divergence of events from the movie. The most obvious one being that this work will follow a few story beats from the novel version of the third movie (Especially a rather big narrative play from the end of the book that will play its major part later). As of right now (Dec 8, 2022) I will not be using any lore/world building from the series The Santa Clauses just to keep it more concise (And because the writing for that show was MID). Any bits of lore that I do decide to use from it will most likely be fleeting mentions at most. Also! This story will contain my personal head cannon that Mother Nature is now 7ft tall (Because she's a goddess and because I think it's cool. Literally no other reason). And I probably won't be doing any other authors notes like these. This one is juts here for supplementary info. Anyway, hope you enjoy.